These pennants were purchased on family vacations to various tourist attractions during the 1950s and 1960s.

A fundamental part of taking a trip is bringing something home to remember it by. Some souvenirs are created by tourists themselves, like a photograph or a shell picked up on a beach. Others, like these pennants, are bought at gift shops. Since the late nineteenth century, a thriving souvenir industry has supplied tourists with mass-produced mementos: spoons, plates, bells, mugs, T-shirts, and countless other novelties. Identical except for the name printed on them, these souvenirs have encouraged tourists to become collectors, to buy the same kind of item at every new place they visit.